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Kenelm

Kenelm accommodates up to 70 girls and three members of staff. The house (previously Aldhelmsted West) has been carefully renovated keeping many of the much-loved period features. Spacious study bedrooms have been created for the Lower Sixth and the younger girls have bright and airy three and four-bed dorms.

Kenelm is a very friendly, affirming and homely house; the girls feel secure and can make friends across the year groups.

The original Kenelm was built in 1928 and the current housemistress is the eleventh in its history.

Housemistress Fran Barnes has a BSc from Lancaster and a PGCE. She joined Sherborne Girls from Hazelgrove Prep School where she was a Head of Geography prior to which she was a housemistress at Felsted School.

I grew up in Essex (yes I am an Essex girl!), and after studying Geography at Lancaster University I taught in an all-girls state school before gaining my PGCE from Goldsmiths in London. I was Assistant Housemistress in a boarding house at Felsted School for 10 years before taking over as Housemistress of a different house for another 3 years. My husband and I moved to the West Country in 2010 when I became Head of Geography at Hazlegrove.

I am passionate about Geography and love nothing more that big, blustery coastal walks in Cornwall. I have undertaken a fair bit of travelling but still have so much of the world to explore. One of my favourite trips was to Iceland – the land of fire and ice. I took 37 Year 7 & 8s on a fieldtrip; their expressions of awe and wonder at the majestic waterfalls, crevassed glaciers and erupting volcanoes will stay with me forever. I love baking – check out my six-layer rainbow cake! I’m also a bit of an adrenaline junkie – I have completed the world’s highest bungee jump and wing-walked on a bi-plane (teenage girls don’t scare me!)

I love my job as Housemistress. No two days are the same (or two hours for that matter). Watching and steering the girls' journey through their school life is a true honour and privilege. Helping them with important preps, watching them play in concerts and matches, listening as they pour out their hearts over the latest boy-band drama; it is all in a days work. Kenelm is a wonderful house; the girls are simply amazing. I live there with my husband Richard (who is Head of the Middle School at Hazlegrove and teaches English and Games) and my daughter Rosie who is in L5 in Dun Holme. I currently teach Geography and PSHE.